2025-26 MVP Hockey Box Break

In recent history, MVP has been Upper Deck’s first hockey card set of the season, usually hitting shelves in August or September. The 2025-26 MVP set was released on July 30 – almost 10 weeks(!) before the start of the season. MVP gives you a lot of bang for your buck. A box costs about $60 USD or $90 CDN and has 20 eight-card packs. Each pack has an insert card and it is possible to pull a serial-numbered card, too. 

Let’s take a look at what’s inside a box of 2025-26 MVP Hockey cards. 

130 Base Cards

The design of this year’s MVP set is nothing to get too excited about. It pictures a player – either from the ankles or the knees and up – and is framed by a triangular border. It looks vaguely reminiscent of the past several MVP sets, which honestly kind of all blurs together in my mind. Whatever. I’ll still collect it. 

A box typically has 130 base cards, which is a significant chunk of the 200-card base set. Players who changed teams by the trade deadline, such as Brad Marchand, are pictured with their new teams. 

Since these cards are produced prior to the end of the prior season, MVP skips having any stats on the back, instead giving us a short blurb about the player – and a whole lot of white space!  

10 Short Prints

Every other pack has a short-printed card, which is either of a rookie who made his debut late last season or of a star player. My box had six MVP Rookies and four Stars. 

Like the base cards, the Rookie cards and Star cards do not have statistics on the back. 

Parallels

4 Silver Script Parallels

You get one Silver Script parallel card in every five packs, for a total of four per box. These cards swap out the blue-gray border for a silver border and have a foil-stamped facsimilia autograph on the front. My four Silver Script parallels were of Nick Suzuki (Canadiens), Frank Nazar (Blackhawks), Pavel Zacha (Bruins) and Nico Hischier (Devils). 

1 Silver Script Rookies Parallel

You also get one Silver Script parallel of either a Rookie or Star player in every box. I got a Silver Script MVP Rookies parallel card of Owen Sillinger, who appeared in one NHL game for the Blue Jackets during the 2024-25 season. 

1 Super Script Parallel /25

Upper Deck does not disclose the odds of pulling a Super Script card but does say you get one “rare card” per box. So, I guess this is it. This Super Scripts parallel card of Vincent Trocheck (Rangers) is numbered 09/25 and has a gold foil facsimilia autograph embossed on the front. The gold foil actually has sort of a rainbow sheen to it when the light hits it. 

Insert Cards

A box of 2025-26 MVP Hockey contains a total of 10 of the following insert cards combined: Rising to the Occasion, Coming to Your Rink, Net Presence, and Mascot Battles. 

4 Rising to the Occasion

Rising to the Occasion feature players who “rise to the occasion” in clutch situations. You get one of these in every six packs. I got four total: Connor Bedard (Blackhawks), Alex Ovechkin (Capitals), Nikita Kucherov (Lightning), and Joakim Kemell (Predators). 

3 Coming to Your Rink

Coming to Your Rink cards picture two star players from the same team and are found one in every seven packs. I got cards of Artemi Panarin & Igor Shesterkin (Rangers), Brady Tkachuk & Tim Stutzle (Senators), and Travis Konecny & Matvei Michkov (Flyers). 

2 Net Presence 

Net Presence cards spotlight players “who are known to have great awareness around the net.” I got Net Presence cards of Matthew Tkachuk (Panthers) and Kirill Kaprizov (Wild). Supposedly, you get one of these in every six packs – or about three per box – but I only got two. This is probably because the Super Script parallel took its place. 

1 Mascot Battles

Mascot Battles are found one in every 16 packs. My Mascot Battle card pictures Spartacat (Senators) and Carlton (Maple Leafs). I always seem to get mascot cards of these two – and now I got them both on the same card. Uh…yay…I guess. 

Insert Stickers 

Stickers! Yes, you read that right – this year’s MVP set has sticker inserts that you can actually peel and stick to your favorite flat surface. You get a total of four stickers per box of 2025-26 MVP. 

2 Hello My Name Is

Hello My Name Is stickers look like those name tag stickers you’d pass out at an event – only the white area where you would write your name are replaced with the picture of a player who made his NHL debut late last season, along with his name and the MVP logo. This is printed on a shiny foil backdrop. This is a good idea, as Joakim Kemell here played two games for the Predators last season, so we need help putting the face to the name. The other Hello sticker I pulled was of Dylan Duke of the Lightning. 

2 Mascot Stickers

I also got two Mascot Stickers – Harvey the Hound (Flames) and Moose (Jets). These are also printed on shiny foil backdrops. I think these Mascot Stickers are a fantastic idea, as kids love mascots and they love stickers – so this combines the two into one great collectible. 

MVP is a decent set for the price. It isn’t too hard to put together, and you get a ton of eye-catching inserts. It gives you exactly what you would expect and doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises, though you can sometimes pull a serial-numbered Colors & Contours insert card or a 1/1 Printing Plate if you are lucky.

However, the stickers are a nice change of pace this year, especially the mascot stickers. If you want a fun break without spending a ton of money, give MVP a try. Two boxes could technically give you a full base set and a good chunk of the short prints, while you can scoop up the rest of the short prints later when the set eventually hits e-Pack and then COMC.

Like always, I’ll be building the base set and short-printed set this year, so if you are collecting it too, let me know and we can trade! 

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